Trade Mark (1)

Trivia (16)

He was awarded C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honors List for his services to drama.

He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1992 (1991 season) for Best Director of a Musical for "Carmen Jones".

He was awarded the Patricia Rothermel Award at the 1999 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his outstanding services to theatre.

Started acting after Sir Laurence Olivier's insistence that if he wanted to act, he should take a job at the box office of the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Played the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the stage version of "Amadeus" before appearing in the film version, in which he played "Emmanuel Schikaneder", who appeared in the first performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and wrote the opera's libretto.

In the Independent on Sunday 2006 Pink List - a list of the most influential gay men and women - he came no. 28, down from 26.

Callow is the author of numerous books, including a biography of Charles Laughton, a book on acting and, most recently, a multi-volume biography of Orson Welles.

His first television role was to have been that of 'First Crew Member' in Carry on Laughing!: Orgy and Bess (1975). His scene was ultimately cut from the episode, although his name remains listed in the closing credits.

The names of George Coulouris and Agnes Moorehead are consistently mis-spelled throughout his book "Orson Welles: The Road To Xanadu", which also refers to "Touch Of Evil" as "A Touch Of Evil"; this latter mistake also occurs in his later book about Welles, "Hello, Americans".

Has said in interviews, that he did not have had a television set for a number of decades.

His father was of English descent, while his mother was of Danish, French, German, and English ancestry.

Release of his book, "Being An Actor".

Performing at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. There Reigns Love - Devised and performed by Simon Callow. July 11 - August 3. [June 2008]

He is currently playing "Count Fosco" in "The Woman in White" at the Palace Theatre in London. [September 2005]

Personal Quotes (4)

[on Alec Guinness] "He wrote to tell me he had just seen A Passage to India (1984), and as the lights had come up he had vomited in shame at his own performance as Professor Godbole."

On his C.B.E., "Being honored by one's country is even better than winning a Tony Award. But since it comes from Downing Street, I suppose in a sense it is a Tony."

I love storytelling and I love just relating directly to an audience. That's why we do theatre, it's because we love contact with the audience. We love the fact that the audience will change us. The way the audience responds makes us change our performance.

It's the most melodious words ever written in the English language. It's also in rhythm, you know, like music, and people love that. (On William Shakespeare)